Crad Hobbs, a Virginia waterman, is depressed over the decline in the shellfish trade and the gradual erosion of his former home, a barrier island off Virginia's Eastern Shore. Worse, his beautiful daughter and only child is engaged to a returning World War II veteran who forsakes the oystering trade to take a job with the local newspaper. The cub reporter's first job is interview a New York banker, and former resident, who has secretly come to the Eastern Shore to provide a loan for a beleaguered Latin-American president whose country is battling communist insurgents. Hobbs blames the banker for his home island's destruction; he believes if the banker had approved a loan for a system of breakwaters, the erosion, and resulting loss of fishing habitat, could have been prevented.

Carlo Cofield vacations to Southern California, where he quickly becomes immersed in the easy-going local culture, getting entangled in two beachside romances.